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Agent 2054
Agent 2054, also known by the pseudonym of "Orion", was a UNSC operative trained by the High Priority Assassination program. Although he remained largely anonymous for most of his early career, Orion would rise to prominence during the Galactic Era as the last HPA operative in active UNSC service and as a key element in its war against the new insurgency. Early Life Orion was originally selected as a candidate for the SPARTAN-III Gamma Company and shipped to Onyx to begin training. His genetic makeup, however, proved to be compatible with the augmentations given to the SPARTAN-IIs and he, along with fifteen others, were removed from the S-III candidates and inducted into the High Priority Assassination Program, an experimental attempt to create the ultimate black operatives. Orion (then known by the designation of 2054) and the others were immediately plunged into a grueling indoctrination program that utilized a combination of psychological warfare and drugs to strip them of their past memories so that they could be made completely loyal to the UNSC. Orion, like all of the other candidates, emerged from the indoctrination not even remembering his own name. The only evidence that Orion possessed from his previous life was a series of scars across his back. Training After the indoctrination had ended, the official training for the HPA trainees began. Rather than be encouraged to work together as the SPARTAN-IIs had, the trainees were instead forcibly isolated and brutalized by their drill instructors in order to forge assassins who could carry out missions while relying entirely on themselves. During the first day of official training, a confused and terrified 2054 became involved in a brawl with fellow trainee 2994. Rather than break the scuffle up, the DIs were instructed to force the trainees to prolong the fight until neither had the energy to continue. Such examples of wanton cruelty would become commonplace inside the HPA facility, which would become known to both trainees and DIs alike as "Hell's Playground". During the first months of training, the instructors focused on exercises that would physically prepare the trainees for the multitude of ordeals that lay ahead. Every day the trainees would be forcibly woken before dawn and pushed beyond their limits throughout the day. Intermittent breaks would be held in which the children were fed various vitamin-rich concoctions in order to subtly improve everything from their reflexes to their eyesight. The trainees were constantly bombarded with UNSC propaganda, which was meant to imprint upon their ravaged minds in order to instill complete loyalty to the UNSC. Those that snapped from the stress of the training would literally be beaten until they rejoined the others in the unending training regimen. 2054 proved to be one of the difficult cases, as he constantly challenged his DIs and resisted the training in any way he could. When frequent beatings proved useless, 2054 was put through frequent sessions with Dr. Chambers, the HPA's head psychiatrist. As Chambers struggled to probe 2054's rebellious psyche, the training began to move on to other subjects. While menial exercises were still performed to start the trainees' days, more academic classes began to appear as the DIs started to focus on more practical things. Six months into the training, the trainees began to take classes in unarmed combat. Instructed in a variety of martial arts, the trainees were soon pitted against each other in routine sparring matches. It was during this time that one trainee in particular, a girl known by the designation of 2995, would become notable as one of the best combatants in the program. 2054, for his part, remained near the bottom of the rankings kept by the DIs to promote competitiveness in the trainees. He was, however, noted for his attempts to outwit his sparring partners in order to defeat them and for being unafraid to stoop to what many other trainees considered to be cheating in order to win. These traits did not make him popular with his fellow trainees, and 2054 was often forced to take part in unrestricted sparring matches with 2995 when the trainees were left "unsupervised" by their DIs. As the training wore on, 2054 continued to challenge and antagonize his DIs, accepting beatings and other punishments without complaint before returning to his insubordinate activities. Things finally came to a head during the trainees' firearm training when 2054 failed to load a rifle properly. The supervising DI first made every trainee stand at attention in the sun while he forced 2054 to repeatedly load the weapon correctly. The DI then proceeded to beat him with the weapon, only stopping after he had broken multiple bones and left the trainee close to death. 2054 would be confined to the facility's medical wing for over a month in critical condition. His injuries were so extensive that even the first-rate doctors employed by the HPA program would doubt their ability to save him. Somehow 2054 managed to pull through, amazing the doctors with his stubborn will to live. While the trainee was recovering from his injuries, Dr. Chambers took the chance to increase his attempts to find something to successfully motivate him. The psychiatrist finally found his answer in the ongoing Human-Covenant War. Rather than focusing on instilling loyalty to the UNSC, the doctor instead focused on stressing the grave threat faced by humanity as a whole and the role that 2054 and the other trainees would play in keeping it united and free from internal threats so that it could face external ones. This belief that he and the others were essential to the survival of the human race was sufficient motivation to make 2054 stop resisting his training and instead embrace it. This dedication to humanity would keep him loyal to the UNSC, which he saw as the best means by which humanity could remain united. The lesson would also quietly instill a secret fear of failure in the young trainee, as he felt that every mission he undertook was a crucial task in safeguarding humanity. This fear, which at times could be a borderline phobia, would make him pursue his goals with a singleminded intensity. The further into the training the HPA candidates got, the more dangerous and lethal it became. After three years of using non-lethal exercises to train their charges, the DIs began to introduce the trainees to live fire simulations. Due to the exhaustive amount of training that they had received beforehand, the trainees were quickly able to adapt to this dangerous new change. It was in this atmosphere that many of the trainees truly began to excel and rise above the others. Trainee 2995 was always in the lead, followed closely by Trainees 2789 and 2994. Others, while not as efficient in combat, became highly competent in specific fields. Trainee 2042, for instance, became a master systems hacker while Trainee 2024 became highly proficient at blending in with his surroundings. 2054 was in neither of these groups, as he could never seem to do better than many of the others and did not focus on any particular field to specialize in. He was, however, the most motivated of the trainees and was constantly reminding himself of his future role as a protector of humanity. During this third year of training, Trainee 2995 grew tired of having only a number for a name and dubbed herself "Artemis". Some of the others preferred their numerical designations, but other followed her lead and gave themselves their own names, usually ones from Greek mythology. 2054 chose the name "Orion" from a list of Greek heroes (he knew next to nothing about myths, but chose Orion because it was the first one he found that he could pronounce easily). First Augmentations Initial Missions Assassination of Ernest Grayson The Hunt for David Wellesley Attempted Suicide Reentering the Military The Midgard Crisis Deployment on Midgard Wounded Retraining Second Augmentations Category:ONI Personnel